Page 105 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

24
Jade hair ornament inlaid with turquoise

Overall length 23 (9 '/ 2), width 9 (3 V 2)
Neolithic Period, Shandong Longshan Culture
(c. 2000 BCE)
bands of ridges and curves of lathelike precision.
From Zhufeng, Linqu, Shandong Province
The plaque is symmetrically carved with hooked
The Institute of Archaeology, CASS, Beijing contours and vermiform perforations, the latter
formed by drilling adjacent sections. One pair of
1
To create this elegant accessory, the lapidary com- circular perforations is inlaid with turquoise beads;
bined a long, tubular pin of mottled gray-green and another pair along the lower edge may have been
a thin, curved plaque of creamy white jade. The pin used to thread a binding to the pin. Sketchy inci-
head is drilled with a V-shaped notch, which slips sions— some echoing the contours of the open-
over a concavity hollowed in the base of the plaque. work plaque, others rendered as simple curves and
Gradually tapered to a softly pointed tip, this pin intersecting lines — may represent preparatory,
is exquisitely crafted in the round. Two bamboolike unfinished designs.
sections, each composed of two gently concave This ornament was excavated from a large, rec-
cylinders joined at a central node, alternate with tangular tomb in north-central Shandong province.

104 LATE P R E H I S T O R I C C H I N A